New Life For Old Drives
If you have been around PCs for any length of time than you probably have one or two old hard disc drives kicking around, gathering dust. The chances are they’re in perfect working order but they’ve been retired because they’re full up, or the capacity isn’t large enough to for today’s space-hungry applications. Propellerhead says don’t throw them away, an old drive can be quickly and cheaply turned into an external HDD, which is ideal for data backups, file storage or transportation.
All you need is a USB to IDE converter cable and power supply, they’re wisely available from PC suppliers, and they’re cheap too, typically costing less then £20. Just plug it in to the back of the drive and connect it up to your PC and Windows XP should immediately recognise it as an external drive.
The only thing to watch out for is that a ‘naked’ drive can be quite vulnerable so you might want to protect it by housing it in a well ventilated plastic box, or a removable drive caddy (also available from PC suppliers for around a tenner). Don’t forget there are tips and tweaks galore in the archive at PCTopTips
